Cultural: The Latest Architecture and News
Xi'an Westin Museum Hotel / Neri&Hu Design and Research Office
SANAA Chosen to Design New Building for Sydney's Art Gallery of New South Wales
A scheme by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA has been unanimously selected as winner of an invited competition to design a new building for Sydney's Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese practice was chosen over 11 others for its "subtle" series of pavilions that are designed to "sit lightly on the land" in order to respect the "extraordinary beauty" of the culturally renowned site.
“The subtle profile of the pavilions complements and preserves the history of the existing Gallery building creating spaces that bring people together and foster a sense of community, imagination and openness,” said Art Gallery of New South Wales Director Dr Michael Brand. “The concept is futurist in its thinking about art museums and the visitor experience and will be transformative for the Gallery and for Sydney."
Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts / Machado and Silvetti Associates
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Architects: Machado and Silvetti Associates
- Area: 89000 ft²
- Year: 2014
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Manufacturers: Acoustical Surfaces, Decoustics, Lutron, ACGI, Alkco, +27
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Professionals: Charles A. Gaetano Construction Corporation
La Grande Passerelle / Architecture-Studio
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Architects: Architecture-Studio
- Area: 6500 m²
- Year: 2015
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Manufacturers: Opinion Ciatti, TRIDONIC
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Professionals: Architecture-Studio, Arcoba, T/E/S/S, AVA, SOGEA Bretagne
Keep It Glassy 2 / Coordination Asia
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Architects: Coordination Asia
- Area: 1000 m²
- Year: 2015
Bamboom: Elora Hardy's TED Talk on Bamboo's Exploding Popularity
Perhaps the most surprising thing about bamboo - besides being an entirely natural, sustainable material with the tensile strength of steel that can grow up to 900 millimeters (3 feet) in just 24 hours - is that it's not more widely recognized as a fantastic construction material. Like many traditional building materials, bamboo no longer has the architectural currency that it once did across Asia and the pacific, but the efforts of Elora Hardy may help put it back into the vernacular. Heading up Ibuku, a design firm that uses bamboo almost exclusively, Hardy's recent TED Talk is an excellent run through of bamboo's graces and virtues in construction, showing off sinuous private homes and handbuilt school buildings.
Auditorio Colegio la Enseñanza / OPUS + MEJÍA / OPUS + MEJÍA
- Area: 2600 m²
- Year: 2013
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Manufacturers: Argos, El Cedro Rojo, Estaco, Eternit, Hunter Douglas, +3
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Professionals: Muros y techos S.A.
Slow Food Pavilion - Milan Expo 2015 / Herzog & de Meuron
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Architects: Herzog & de Meuron
- Area: 12589 ft²
- Year: 2015
Armani Silos / Giorgio Armani
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Architects: Giorgio Armani
- Year: 2015
National Theatre / Haworth Tompkins
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Architects: Haworth Tompkins
- Area: 16309 m²
- Year: 2015
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Manufacturers: Cambridge Architectural Precast
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Professionals: AECOM, Bristow Johnson, All Clear Design, Arup Acoustics, Atelier Ten, +11
60 Atlantic Avenue / Quadrangle Architects
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Architects: Quadrangle Architects
- Area: 43000 ft²
- Year: 2014
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Manufacturers: Tokio. Furniture & Lighting
Cultural Centre in Montbui / Pere Puig arquitecte
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Architects: Pere Puig Arquitecte
- Year: 2015
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Professionals: BAC Engineering Consultancy Group, INBISA, SOGESA
El Pinós Cultural Center / LC Arquitectura
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Architects: LC Arquitectura
- Year: 2015
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Professionals: COYRE VINALOPÓ SL
Valletta City Gate / Renzo Piano Building Workshop
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Architects: Renzo Piano Building Workshop
- Year: 2015
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Manufacturers: UniFor, Astec
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Professionals: Silvano, Studio Giorgetta
Work Begins on Steven Holl's Hunters Point Library in Queens
Construction has commenced on Steven Holl Architects' Hunters Point Community Library in Queens, New York. Rising along the shoreline on the city's East River near a cluster of newly built high-rise condominiums, the 22,000 square-foot (6,705 meter) library aims to provide a community-centric public space and park to the increasingly privatized Long Island City waterfront.
Tomihiro Art Museum / aat + makoto yokomizo architects
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Architects: aat + makoto yokomizo architects
- Area: 2463 m²
- Year: 2005
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Professionals: aat + makoto yokomizo architects inc, architects Inc., Arup, ES Associates, Kajima Corporation, +2
AD Classics: Viipuri Library / Alvar Aalto
Despite being one of the seminal works of modern Scandinavian architecture, Alvar Aalto’s Viipuri Library languished in relative obscurity for three-quarters of a century until its media breakthrough in late 2014. Its receipt of the World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize for a recent renovation was covered by news outlets around the world, bringing the 1935 building previously unseen levels of attention and scrutiny.
This renaissance is nothing less than extraordinary. Abandoned for over a decade and allowed to fall into complete disrepair, the building was once so forgotten that many believed it had actually been demolished. [1] For decades, architects studied Aalto’s project only in drawings and prewar black-and-white photographs, not knowing whether the original was still standing, and if it was, how it was being used. Its transformation from modern icon to deserted relic to architectural classic is a tale of political intrigue, warfare, and the perseverance of a dedicated few who saved the building from ruin.
Bahrain Pavilion – Milan Expo 2015 / Studio Anne Holtrop
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Architects: Studio Anne Holtrop
- Year: 2015